Hypersonic "Object 4202" and its test

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

"Object 4202" is the symbol for the latest Russian project in the field of modern military hypersonic aircraft (LA). According to authoritative foreign analytical centers, its successful implementation may neutralize the advantages in the field of strategic weapons that the United States intends to gain over Russia as a result of the deployment of a global missile defense system.

How aircraft are classified by flight speed

Aircraft according to their speed characteristics are divided into subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic. At the same time, their flight speeds are usually expressed in the form of dimensionless quantities, a multiple of the so-called. Mach number, named after the Austrian physicist Ernst Mach, and denoted by the Latin letter M. The Mach number is a dimensionless quantity and can be simply defined as the ratio of the aircraft speed to the speed of sound in air at a given altitude. Therefore, an aircraft speed of 1 M (or M=1) means that it flies at the speed of sound. At the same time, it shouldremember that the speed of sound decreases with height, so the value of 1 M at different heights will correspond to different values, expressed in km / h. So, near the ground, a speed of 1 M corresponds to a value of 1224 km / h, and at an altitude of 11 km - 1062 km / h.

The speeds of supersonic aircraft cannot exceed 5 M (or M=5), while hypersonic aircraft fly at speeds above 5 M. At the same time, they can also maneuver using the aerodynamic forces that arise during flight in the air, and also glide over distances far greater than at sub-hypersonic speeds.

Physical grounds for the allocation of hypersonic aircraft

The 5 M boundary between supersonic and hypersonic aircraft was not chosen by chance. The fact is that when this speed is reached, the nature of the flow of aerodynamic and gas-dynamic processes, respectively, near the aircraft body and inside its jet engine, changes significantly. Firstly, the boundary layer of air flowing around the aircraft at a speed of 5 M is heated to a temperature of several thousand degrees (especially in front of the frontal part of the aircraft), and gas molecules that make up the air begin to decompose into ions (dissociate). The physicochemical properties of such an ionized gas differ significantly from the properties of ordinary air, it tends to enter into chemical reactions with the surface of the aircraft, and intense convection and radiation heat exchange occurs between it and the flow around. Therefore, the thermal protection of the aircraft should be no worse than that of the American space shuttles or the Soviet Buran.

ExceptIn addition, hypersonic aircraft require a very special jet engine design that is unlike any known type. The fact is that in the known aircraft engines of supersonic aircraft, the flow rate of the air taken from the atmosphere during the formation of the fuel-air mixture inevitably decreases to subsonic (otherwise it is impossible to have time to introduce the required amount of fuel into the air). In a hypersonic aircraft, such a decrease in the speed of air flow is unacceptable - due to the law of energy conversion, this will cause such overheating of the engine structural elements that no known material can cope with.

Design Features

The engine of a hypersonic aircraft (in its simplest version) is similar to two articulated funnels, one of which serves as an air intake (the narrow part is a kind of compressor combined with a fuel injector, and also acts as a combustion chamber), and the second funnel is a nozzle for the release of burnt gases that create thrust. Such an engine can only be placed under the fuselage of an aircraft, which creates a certain look for hypersonic vehicles.

However, such an engine cannot operate at speeds less than 5-6 M, since the compressed flow simply does not warm up to the temperatures required for complete combustion of the fuel. Therefore, the most realistic way to accelerate a hypersonic aircraft to the required engine start speed (at least at the present stage) is to use a separating booster rocket as the first stage,sometimes in combination with a booster aircraft. The photo below shows an American X-52 hypersonic aircraft attached under the wing of a B-52 strategic bomber.

Status of work on hypersonic aircraft in the US

USA has long begun the development of new types of offensive weapons. First of all, these are hypersonic aircraft. So, within the framework of the DARPA Falcon Project, a rocket glider, designated HTV-2, is being developed, as well as projects of Boeing corporation hypersonic vehicles (X-43, X-51) are equipped with ramjet engines like the one shown in the photo above. They are capable of carrying warheads weighing up to 450 kg, which can be both nuclear weapons and volumetric explosion bombs, adjacent to them in terms of power, capable of destroying protected enemy command posts.

The Boeing X-51 project will be capable of speeds up to 6400 km/h. For the first time this device was lifted into the air in May 2010. There were two unsuccessful launches in total, ending in the destruction of the glider. After separation from the carrier aircraft, the device is accelerated by an additional booster made on the basis of a military tactical missile. Only upon reaching a speed of 5400 km / h, the jet engine of the aircraft itself is turned on, which accelerates it to cruising speed.

What we lost from Soviet hypersonic developments

Of course, Russia had to fend off such a threat. Today, the corresponding Soviet developments are being brought to mind. In the 80s of the last century,we had advanced developments in this area and even a finished product - the X-90 rocket plane of the Gala project. According to experts, the X-90 was successfully launched from an aircraft specially adapted for this purpose, and accelerated to 5400 km / h, which is the limit of hypersound. But then came the "liberal-blessed 90s", and the project was closed.

Russian response to "Washington"

Recently, the well-known British military research center Janes Information Group published information that in February last year in Russia at the Dombarovsky training ground (Orenburg region) flight tests of a hypersonic aircraft under the symbol Yu-71 (Yu -71). Object 4202, which, according to the same center, is a generic symbol for all Russian hypersonic developments, is part of our missile program.

But formally it is not the military department that orders it from the industry, but the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation, which in modern conditions is not an extra "cover" for this work. The lead R&D contractor on the subject “Object 4202” is “NPO Mashinostroenie” from Reutov near Moscow (the former missile design bureau of General Designer Vladimir Chelomey, which was the main developer of cruise missiles and medium-range ballistic missiles in the USSR).

By the way, the site of this company contains information that back in the late 50s of the last century, the MP-1 aircraft was created in the design bureau, capable of maneuvering in the atmosphere with the help of aerodynamic rudders with hypersonic speeds. It was successfully launched back in 1961! So the topic"Object 4202" has a long history.

Prospects for Russian "hypersound"

From a number of sources it is known that since the beginning of the 2000s, Russia began work on "military hypersound" and is going to install the Yu-71 product on the promising Sarmat ballistic missile. The new Russian hypersonic object 4202 is capable of accelerating to a speed of 11,000 km/h and can carry a conventional or nuclear warhead. At such gigantic speeds, the device can maneuver while in the atmosphere at altitudes of 40 to 50 km. Therefore, it cannot be intercepted by any of the latest missile defense systems.

And although the warheads of modern intercontinental ballistic missiles also reach hypersonic speeds in flight, their trajectories are amenable to calculation, and hence to possible interception by missile defense systems. The Yu-71 product (object 4202), unlike them, is capable of maneuvering along a complex unpredictable trajectory, changing course and altitude, so it is almost impossible to intercept it.

At the same time, there is reason to believe that the first tests of object 4202 took place back in 2004. It was then that Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces Baluyevsky reported at a press conference about the tests of a hypersonic aircraft maneuvering along the course and altitude.

"Object 4202": to the shores of America in hypersound

The American press reacted to the tests of the Russian hypersonic glider. Many newspapers spoke openly about the fact that the American strategy of a lightning-fast global strike hadserious competitor. If the work on the Object 4202 project is successfully completed, then in 10 years Russia will receive a serious "trump card" in negotiations with the United States. The fact is that in the presence of hypersonic aircraft, it will be possible to hit any target in the United States with just one missile. For example, the same "Sarmat" on which the aircraft will be installed, created according to the project "Object 4202". Hypersound at flight speed plus the maneuverability of a new type of aircraft - these are the new qualities of this weapon, which, perhaps, will make senseless the enormous expenditure of resources for the creation of American missile defense systems.